‘Illogical’ rise in car parking fees
Increasing Christchurch’s parking charges would boost the city council’s coffers by more than three-quarters of a million dollars.
Christchurch City Council is proposing to increase the cost of on-street parking by 45 per cent, from $3.10 an hour to $4.50.
The cost to park at the council’s Lichfield St car park building could also rise from $2.80 an hour to $4 – a 43 per cent increase. The rate at the Art Gallery car park could also double from $2 an hour to $4.
The on-street fee hikes are expected to generate an extra
$660,000, council head of transport Richard Osborne said.
That figure would have been
$960,000, but the council planned to waive the credit card fees and pay them itself, at a cost of
$300,000.
The increase in off-street parking is expected to bring in an additional $162,000.
Osborne said that in the last financial year the council received $2.8 million from onstreet parking charges and $2.4m for off-street parking.
The fee hike has been described as ‘‘illogical’’ by one city councillor, while others were supporting the push towards a more user-pays system.
Cr James Gough, co-chair of the council’s city momentum committee, said the fee increases were not conducive to welcoming people back into the central city, where retailers and hospitality businesses were struggling.
Cr Jake McLellan said he supported the increases because the city should be moving towards a more user-pays system for car parking.
The increases have been proposed as part of the council’s 10-year budget, the long-term plan, which will be released for public consultation on March 12.